I think we should set up a defense fund for my friend Michael Ledeen who is being accused of forging the Niger Uranium Documents by former CIA official Vincent Cannistraro. It all happened on a radio show over the weekend:
Ian Masters, host of Background Briefing, in Los Angeles, interviewed Vincent Cannistraro, the former head of Counterterrorism operations at the CIA. Cannistraro came close to naming the man who forged the Niger documents. When Masters asked, “If I said ‘Michael Ledeen’?” Vincent Cannistraro replied, “You’d be very close.”
Is that “close as in close” or close as in “close, but no cigar”? (Insider’s note: Ledeen is a cigar maven.) I hate to rain on Mr. Cannistraro’s anti-neocon parade, but I have news for him: The Niger Documents were in French and Michael doesn’t speak French (well, barely, but trust me, not enough to pull off a forgery of anything remotely official). Now if the docs were in Italian…
What we have here is obviously another dim-witted round being fired in the ongoing internal intelligence/foreign policy wars. In the old days, uttering such ridiculous slanders on Pacifica Radio would amount to nothing because no one would notice. In our Internet Age, inane remarks of this nature spread like wildfire. But perhaps Cannistraro is not up to speed on such things.
MEANWHILE: some people want to know if “Michael Ledeen kidnapped the Lindbergh baby?”
(Cohibas will be accepted for the Defense Fund.)
Roger,
I think a legal offense fund might be more appropriate
But Castrado or whatever his name was weasel worded well enough to probably avoid a successful slander suit. Perhaps one of our many lurking lawyers can tell us.
Ledeen better watch it. He’s horning in on Rove’s territory as the high priest of boogeymen.
Funny about Ledeen…the more he’s right, the more he gets dumped on. My, my. Mercy sakes. Goodness gracious. Waddaya know.
This is just another example of whats been wrong with our intelligence services. Yeah…thats a good theory, Michael Ledeen did it. Too much.
Michael Ledeen is a class act. Preaching to the choir I know. In stark contrast to all the (ex) CIA types coming out of the woodwork lately. Rest assured Cannistraro is now in the pipeline and the usual suspect “journalists” will be beating a path to his door. That Scheuer guy, and his living room–I guess it is his preferred interview venue, has been on t.v. over here so often I find myself with nothing left to do but turn the sound down and critique the furniture and color scheme. I hope a little preemption–we’re listening! You can’t say just anything and get away with it anymore!–will save me from having to learn if Cannistraro’s home has plush carpet or not.
The CIA is rotten to its foundations and cannot be “reformed”.
Raze it to the ground, and start over.
This is a very interesting usage: “close.” I would have thought you would either be “right” or “wrong”, since the person in question is either (a) Michael Ledeen or (b) Not Michael Ledeen, but clearly that’s naive.
Let me try this out, for practice:
“Who was it that suggested Michael Ledeen was behind the Niger Uranium Document forgery?”
“Hmm…was it Michael Scheuer?”
“Close! It was Vincent Cannistraro!”
Some interesting insight into the thought processes of Cannistraro, who ‘organized an interview with Osama bin Laden for ABC News in 1998.’
As long as we’re all indulging in speculation, …
http://www.pewfellowships.org/seminars/2002/fall/vincent_cannistraro.htm
The best defense is a good offense.
I’m afraid nothing will save us, Yama. April appears to be remedial meme training month (gotta sharpen those butterknives) and Fitzgerald is very close to closing the Wilson/Plame “affaire” in a manner which will not please the moonbats. Cannistraro has to be dragged in because the Clarke/Wilson lies need an untainted (for the moment) mouth.
Illusions and delusions are becoming more difficult to sustain (as you note) and constant reinforcement by the usual MSM flunkies seems to be the tool of choice. The Market for lies continues to drop, however, so there is reason for hope.
Maybe GM will toos a few of those ad dollars they pulled from the LAT towards Micael at NRO (or bettter – towards well situated LA bloggers).
I’m just enjoying that these people call themselves the “Reality-Based Community”. Wonkette has a bit this morning on the fevered fantasies of Mike Rogers, who apparently believes that Jeff Gannon has engaged in sex with the President. You can’t parodize that because parody involves stretching to the limit, but that theory comes pre-stretched.
Jeff Gannon having it off with the POTUS? There are people who BELIEVE this sort of krep?!?!
“Reality-based community”: best inversion terminology I’ve heard in ages. Like a bunch of reactionary leftists calling themselves “progressive”…
This was from a comedy segment of the program, right? They aren’t really that demented, are they?
Oh… it wasn’t and they are. Sigh…
Regardless of decor, Yama, you must admit the CIA has tastefully kept quiet about this George Bush/Michael Ledeen sexual liason. That’s proper because a president’s private life has NOTHING to do with his job performance. Ha…’job performance’ (*giggle*).
Roger:
The left wing has sunk to the “Clinton Death List” status. No doubt this gentleman will soon have a book that he can sell off folding tables at fringe group political gatherings. The more they try to pin this on Michael the more people will be exposed to his great idea’s as the failure of these baseless charges expose the rumour mongers as buffoons. The CIA has been so wrong for so long that why anyone listens to these novelists is beyond me. Rep. Burton is still trying to live down his pumpkin shooting experiment during the Vince Foster hysteria and this idiot will shrink in stature as Michael continues to rise. It takes awhile but eventually the truth comes out and there will be a lot of moonbats who will have this fantasy hung around their necks.
P.S.- If you ever need a pick me up turn on your local Pacifica station or pick it up on the web. They are so far out in la lA land that their shows are unintentionally hilarious. They think Ward Churchill is a rational wise man. In comparison NPR is a bastion of right wing thought. Turn it on if you need a giggle.
I’m no expert on the yellowcake story, but I have never seen this story discredited, in which the forged papers were linked to an agent in the employment of French intelligence.
I don’t recall seeing anything on it, Tigerhawk, after a blurb somewhere (NR?) saying that apparently the forgery-conspiracy had been outed trying to implicate the Italian spooks.
Kevin P,
The CIA has been so wrong for so long that why anyone listens to these novelists is beyond me.
The explanation for why some people listen is well covered territory. Think PT Barnum (a sucker born every minute), think Abe Lincoln (you can fool some of the people all of the time). OK, maybe both were Twain but you get my point.
What is marginally more interesting is why such people publish such books. That is, given that they devoted their careers, ostensibly, to the service of their nation, perplexing.
At least until one understands that they are run of the mill “civil servants” who reached their career apogee during the Clinton administration. That is, in my lifetime, arguably the most cynical and self-serving time for gubmint service. They’ve attained their 20 or 25 or 30 year pension plan.
Their basic financial needs are met. Attaining something approximating luxury is now, for them, a matter of picking up speaking fees on the “Bash Amwerica With Rubber Chickens and Moronic Rhetoric” circuit. This is best achieved by writing a book that, hopefully, gets one sufficient shelf space and Radio Reactionary Moonbat airtime to get one a few dozen $10K speaking engagements (along with first-class accomodations, travel expenses, and invites to All The Best Local Eliteries on Other People’s Money) and some sweetheart investment advice from the likes of Soros and Buffet who need someone more pliable than Chimpy von Bu$hitler in the White House.
There is a Big Money Angle here. It’s the Moonbats who are being bought and paid for.
As with Tom Delay, the accusation has been made, therefore the charge is proved. Michael Ledeen should resign whatever it is he does for a living and request a strict jail term…
Mon cher Ancien Belge, I have a fried, a good person in most regards, who believes with unshakeable fervor that right now, as this is typed, George Bush is stumbling around the White House in a drunken, coke-addled frenzy. It is impossible to persuade her otherwise.
Richard, PLEASE try to talk her out of voting anymore…tell her it’s all a sham anyway…please.
Is there any truth to the rumor that Ledeen’s great-granpa drafted the Zimmerman Letter (“It’s a slam dunk, Mr. Wilson!”) ?
Well, my first thought was that he wasn’t accusing Ledeen but someone close to him. Chalabi. Chalabi is accused of everything it seems. :0
Oh, Mark Steyn on the CIA and their turning on Chalabi:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn10.html
So my second thought echos my first thought. BTW, how many languages does Chalabi know?
ìAs with Tom Delay, the accusation has been made, therefore the charge is proved. Michael Ledeen should resign whatever it is he does for a living and request a strict jail term…î
Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) has addressed this very issue in his book, The Appearance of Impropriety. The far left are desperately trying to destroy both Delay and Ledeen with innuendo. We are suppose to abandon them because they are accused of misbehavior. Proof is not required. The mere hint of impropriety is sufficient.
Then it gets worse; everyone knows an innocent is being tarred, but he has to be dumped anyway, because he’s a “lightening rod”.
Babs Boxer uses this today against Bolton: “After listening to me complain about Bolton, I’ve convinced myself that I’ll never shut up, therefore Bolton is too controversial to hold this position!”
Bolton: “Controversial in what way, Madam?”
Boxer: “Controversial in that I ought to shut up, but I can’t.”
Bolton: “Oh.”
I think JPS is on to something. Maybe by “close” he meant “nearby”. Maybe one of Michael Ledeen’s neighbors.
Then again, maybe by “close” he meant Michael Landon.
LOL, byrd, that was funny! Bonanza!
Buddy and Byrd,
Thanks for making me laugh. I’ll go to bed happy tonight.
This’ll tickle ya, Yama, from Syl’s Mark Steyn link:
“The CIA, as I wrote a couple of years back, now functions in the same relation to President Bush as Pakistan’s ISI does to General Musharraf. In both cases, before the chief executive makes a routine request of his intelligence agency, he has to figure out whether they’re going to use it as an opportunity to set him up, and if so how. For Musharraf, the problem is the significant faction in the ISI that would like to kill him. Fortunately for Bush, if anyone at the CIA launched a plot to kill him, they’d probably take out G. W. Bish, who runs a feed store in Idaho.”